October 22, 1993

I really hope you read the first letter before this one,

Otherwise, a lot of this is going to sound like a fever dream. As for why I am writing this one a few days later, I wanted to split up the words I have to say across several notes, just in case… I don’t know, I’m not sure what in case of, but just in case. Maybe in case of him, I don’t know. But whatever.

I also did want to get this one done sooner, just because I wanted to make a few separate letters doesn’t mean I wanted to wait too long between each one. After all, I’m on a bit of a time constraint (which I’ll get to). It’s just, since Sunday, my grandma has been putting me through the wringer, telling me stuff, teaching me stuff, working me to the bone. I wrote the first letter as soon as I got home before falling asleep, but then crashed. Since then, I haven’t had much time to write until now, which is later than I would’ve liked, but still sooner than this Sunday, so we’ll have to make do. I really hope I finish all of these before it’s time. Anyway… back to it.

Okay, so… I ran as fast as I could, panicked, back to my grandma. I had the fire poker in one hand and the oil bottle in the other, though, of course, I had no idea why I needed them. By the time I made it back to her, she was talking to someone. Someone… strange. Now, I didn’t know this at the time, but he’s called The Shepherd. I only say this now in case I can’t finish everything I have to say… it’s important that you know who this is and look out for him. But yeah, he was the guy that I saw him in the woods where my grandma had just been, yet there were no other goblins around.

I stayed hidden for a moment, just as I had when I was following my grandma before running home, trying to get a sense of what was going on. The man was strange. He looked human, or human-like, but something was clearly off. He had a human-like face, though there these horn-like protrusions on his forehead that curled toward each other. Kind of like a ring with a space in the middle. He also wore wears a suit, all black, with a black undershirt, and some white flower lapeled to his jacket. Honestly, if the dude wasn’t so scary-looking, I’d have to admit he looks good. Oh, and a cane, he has a cane. I know that sounds stupid to remember, but he made a comment to my grandma about “copying his style”, because she uses one, too. The only difference is she uses hers to walk, and he obviously doesn’t.

I noticed my grandma stayed standing in the ritualistic circle she had made. The shepherd, however, he stood outside of it. Almost like he couldn’t enter. He pranced around it confidently though, real swagger-like. Something I felt I knew about him is that no matter the situation, he will always act like he’s in control. Sometimes he will be, of course. He runs these woods, apparently. But sometimes he won’t be, and yet he won’t act any differently. So don’t let his demeanor get to you.

Anyway, this is when I saw my grandma pull the gun out of her bag. Yeah. Yeah. It was like that. She pulled out her gun and fired it right at the weird man, but it didn’t do anything. The guy has reflexes faster than you can even see. He blocked my grandma’s bullet… with his cane. He just raised it up in front of him and swatted it away. I don’t even know how someone could move that fast. Then again, after all this weird shit, I suppose I shouldn’t be so fixated on something as small as that. I haven’t even gotten to the most intense that it got that night. I will. don’t worry. I will.

My grandma fired at him two more times, even though he just kept deflecting them. The shepherd asked her if she was “done yet”, to which my grandma fired a final shot before telling him, “Yeah, I’m done.”

Say what you will about my grandma, but she was not taking any sass from this guy, and made sure he couldn’t get any satisfaction from their encounter, even though she was obviously out of her depth. I think he saw this, too. He seemed to be trying really hard to intimidate her, even though she wouldn’t allow herself to be.

Me, on the other hand, I was freaking out. Why wouldn’t I be? Some creepy guy in the woods with horns and a cane approaching you after you just encountered real-life goblins? Fuck that, man.

I couldn’t tell if they had met before, because it seemed like they had, but I wouldn’t know why they would have. The shepherd only resides in these woods (as far as I know), and if my grandma knew him, I feel like she would have pushed harder not to come here. If I had to guess, that’s just how the man acts. He comes off as familiar with everyone, acting like he knows you, maybe better than you know yourself, conversing with you like you’re old friends, even though you’ve never even seen his face before. It’s creepy to think about, but that must be it.

He continued to walk circles around my grandma’s circle, chastising and demeaning her without ever trying to get any closer. It was weird. He would go back and forth between acting nice and acting devilish. Alright, this stuff isn’t important.

I remember my grandma asking him what he wanted, and he explained. He said he was just hungry, and that he just wanted to feed “his kingdom”, whatever that meant. Is he considered the ruler of these woods? That wouldn’t make sense. Would it? I don’t know. I know for sure that he is responsible for all the littler creatures, the goblins and the other things. They listen to him. Just know that. They listen to him.

Where was I? Oh shit, yeah, okay, so… this is where things got intense. Well, for the moment. I imagine things are going to get much more intense soon enough, but anyway. The shepherd stopped walking and stared intensely at my grandma. He asked her how safe she thought her family was, but she didn’t reply. I remember trying to think what my grandma was thinking in that moment, and figured she was making sure she didn’t accidentally say something she’d regret, or let something slip. While I’d want to do the same thing, cuz that’s the smart thing to do, I know I probably wouldn’t think to. But my grandma was on it.

He asked again, referring to our house and who lived in it. He asked if she thought all of them were safe. He even added that it was a “simple question”, before clarifying that he just wanted to know if she thought she could keep us safe. Ignoring most of his words, my grandma simply replied, softly, “They’re fine.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

With that, he took a more performative approach. He stood up straight, acting like a caricature of a thinking man, hmm-ing to himself. He then, and then is what made me terrified of him, asked, “Is that what you think?” Now that question on its own is obviously not that scary. What was scary, is that he didn’t look at my grandma when he asked. He looked up, through the bushes and trees, and stared right at me. He was asking, “Is that what you think?”

Just then, I was ripped from my hiding spot, ruffling through bushes and smacking into tree branches. I flung through the air, unable to move my body, and when I finally stopped flying, I was being held above the ground, my neck in the shepherd’s hand. I couldn’t process what had happened at the time. He had telekinetically pulled me straight to him? Was he serious? This is what my grandma had been dealing with every week? Or not… I’m still not sure if this was new to her, too. I did try asking her, but she wouldn’t tell me. Despite everything she was willing to share, there were some things she stayed secretive about. Again, not that it matters now.

This was the first moment my grandma had noticed I had returned. Up until then, she just thought I hadn’t made it back yet. Even when he asked that final question, she thought he was talking to her. He held me off to the side, showing me off to her, while I just clawed at his grip against my neck. It was useless. He asked my grandma if she was still sure of her family’s safety, and said that it seemed one of them “hadn’t gotten the memo” to stay inside. How had he known that’s what she always told us? So weird.

Luckily, I still had the items in my hand. Well, one of them. I had dropped the fire poker when I went sailing through the bushes and stuff, but had managed to hold onto the olive oil. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know why I needed it, but if my grandma had been expecting this, expecting him, and asked me to grab what I did, then I figured it must have been intended for him. I squeezed the bottle (I should’ve clarified, we keep our oil in those clear ketchup bottles, so we can drizzle it on stuff easily) and sprayed the shepherd with its oil, not knowing what to expect. To my surprise, he let me go. Apparently, which my grandma told me the next morning, while olive oil can’t actually harm him or cause any long-lasting effects, in the moment it can temporarily weaken his physical strength and powers. I think, I might be misremembering that. I’m so tired. But also, again… why would she know that, unless she’s… I think she’s just read up on him. I don’t know where, but like… that has to be it. Right?

I don’t expect you to know everything my grandma knows, or learn things however she learned them, so I want to do my best to give you what info I can. Hopefully, I will have more to tell you soon.

Whatever, I sprayed him with the oil and he let go, that’s what’s important. I do wish I had still had the fire poker at the time, I’m sure I would’ve swung it against him, but I had to work with what I had. Dropping me to the ground, my grandma yelled at me to join her in the circle. As I lunged forward, I noticed the shepherd stick out his hand toward me, but nothing happened. I think he had been trying to attract me back to him, but like my grandma told me the next morning, because of the oil, he couldn’t. I was safe in the circle with her.

That's when From there, we just waited. Seriously, we just had to wait him out. The shepherd can only be up when the sun is down. Not for any werewolf or vampire reasons, it’s not his weakness. He doesn’t have to retreat before it gets him. He just goes away, straight up vanishes. So don’t think you can stall and then force him to solar exposure, that won’t do anything. It’ll just make him leave. So while you’ll be free for the time being, he won’t be done with. And he will just come back when it’s dusk again.

But yeah, after the oil stopped taking effect, which was after about a minute, he was back to normal. He didn’t even have to wash it off or anything, it was just as if the essence of that dose had run dry and it no longer posed any threat to him. I remember thinking how little time he was even deterred. He seemed disgruntled for about ten seconds before regaining his composure. From there, he just waited another thirty seconds or so and then he felt his strength come back to him. He even picked his cane off the ground with his powers. And then he just stood there.

Stuck inside the circle with my grandma, I asked her who he was and what was going on. She didn’t say anything. I don’t understand why. She still has said barely anything now that I think about it. She’s told me to prepare, and what to carry with me, but she hasn’t told me anything about him specifically. I don’t get it. Anyway, I’m getting off-track again. I apologize, it’s just been so long and I have so much to say. Where was I? Oh, okay…

The shepherd closed his eyes while standing in front of us once or twice, saying he was looking at our house. According to him, he could look through the eyes of his goblins and see what they saw. Again, this was not told to me at the time, but I want you to know now, just in case anything happens. He can see all across the woods, just by looking through the eyes of his minions. I still don’t get how that explains knowing you so well, but I suppose it accounts for a little bit. He’s able to learn a bit about you based on what the goblins see, so that when you encounter him he can act all-knowing and stuff. But he can’t know anything about you just from them. Can he? Maybe… I really don’t, hmm…

While we waited, the shepherd started talking about Halloween coming up. He teased us over the fact that the day was a spooky one, and many kids like to come up into these woods to test their bravery. He grinned at the fact kids have “mysteriously” gone missing in these woods before, and it adds to the testament that comes with proving oneself amongst their young friends. Not that we’d know. We moved into this house less than a year ago, well after Halloween last year. He laughed at that. Apparently, not that he gets any stronger or anything on the day but just by circumstances, the 31st is the shepherd’s favorite day of the year. Of course.

So we waited. Me and my grandma, we kept to ourselves inside her circle, while the shepherd walked around us or leaned against the trees, trying to get into our heads. He invited several goblins to join him, who soon surrounded the circle as well. I wasn’t sure if we were still hidden to them just as they had been earlier or if something my grandma had done had revealed us to all of them, but it didn’t matter at the moment. However now, as my grandma told me, once you leave the circle, the protection remains but the cloaking disappears. However, I think it also had to do with the shepherd. If he can see you, then I think the other creatures can see you, too.

We waited until dawn, when the first few rays of sun started to peek through the trees. As the light started to shine though, the creepy man simply said, “See you soon…” and dissipated as a sunbeam shone through his position. Along with the rest of the creatures. Once my grandma was sure we were safe, we slowly packed up her stuff and walked back home. She told me, without saying anything about the shepherd, that we had a lot to do before next Sunday. Of course.

I’m still thinking of a cool name to sign off as, because I don’t think I should reveal myself or connect you to me in any way by accident, so… Sincerely, The Hunter (I’ll work on it)